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T3 S ... 

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16 — 47372-2 



BRYAN OR M C K1NLEY, WHICH? 



WHAT THE STARS SAY. 



By DANIEL W. CHURCH, 

Author of "The Records of a Journey," "The Enigma of Life," 
and "Our Difficulty and the Way Out of It." 



Not in what the Nation produces, but in the producers of the Nation 
does the grandeur lie. 



GREENFIELD, IOWA, 
THE BERLIN CAREY CO., 
PUBLISHERS. 



47886 . 



l_ibra*ry of Comfr*st 

"No Copies Reu^o 
SEP 15 1900 

Copyright tntry 

SECOND COPY, 

Driver** to 

ORDLS DIVISION, 
—OCT Q 1900 



Copyright, 1900, 
By DANIEL W. CHURCH. 



Uj 



INTRODUCTORY. 

I AM going to talk to you about our institutions, and 
show you that we build them, as we build our houses, 
am going to tell you the steps that we take in build- 
ng them, the steps we have already taken, and the 
lext step that we are to take. 

I am going to show you the use that our parties are 
o us in building our institutions, the condition that 
>ur institutions are now in, and the relation of our par- 
ies to it; so that in casting our votes this fall we may 
now what they count for. 

And finally I am going to show you that if we take 
he right course we may now realize our highest hopes. 
That if we take the wrong one, we will suffer untold 
orrow. For ours is to be the glory of the world's 
greatest achievement, or the humiliation of its greatest 
efeat. 



BRYAN OR M c KIN LEY, WHICH? 



WHAT THE STARS SAY. 

YOU will all agree with me when I say that we 
ought to cast our votes with reference to the con- 
dition of our institutions; for our institutions regulate 
our action towards one another, and thereby determine 
the condition of the people. 

Now our institutions are of two kinds; our Organiza- 
tion of Government, and our Organization of Industry; 
and so far as we have proceeded in the building of 
them, we have pursued a uniform course. We first 
united a few of us in them; then we united more of us 
in them; then finally united all of us in them. 

The first step that we took in building our Organiz- 
ation of Government, was when we organized the Brit- 
ish government By that step we united the king and 
nobles in it. The next step that we took in building 
our Organization of Government, was when we organ- 
ized the American government. By that step we unit- 
ed everybody in it except the colored people. The 
next step that we took in building of our Organization 
ot Government, was when we adopted the fifteenth 
amendment to the Constitution. By that step we unit- 
ed everybody in it, including the colored people. 

The first step that we took in Building our Organiz- 
ation of Industry, was when we organized our Com- 



6 



BRYAN OB McKINLEY, WHICH? 



panies. By that step we united a few of us in it. The 
next step that we took in building our Organization of 
Industry, was when we organized our Combines. By 
that step we united more of us in it. And the next 
step that we will take in building our Organization of 
Industry, if we complete the building of it, will be to 
unite all of us in it, just as we finally united all of us 
in our Organization of Government. 

It will thus be seen that in the steps that we take in 
building our institutions, we are controled by an un- 
varying law. We first unite a few of us in them; then 
we unite more of us in them, and finally we unite j.11 of 
us in them. This is the way we build our institutions. 

But in order to understand how far we have proceed- 
ed in the building of our institutions, it will be neces- 
sary for us to know not only the steps that we take in 
building them, but what brings them about. 

Now, if you will think of it, our action towards one 
another is governed by our idea of one another. Your 
action towards me is governed by your idea of me. My 
action towards you is governed by my idea of you. 
This is a law to which there are no exceptions. It gov- 
erns us as completely as the law of gravitation. 

Hence it follows, that there cannot be a change in 
our manner of acting towards one another without there 
is a change in our idea of one another; and that the 
changes that we make in our manner of acting towards 
one another, by uniting more and more of us in our Or- 
ganizations of Government and of Industry, are brought 



WHAT THE STARS SAY. 



7 



about by changes that take place in our idea of one an- 
other. 

Accordingly we find that when we made the change 
in our Organization of Government by which we united 
everybody in it, except the colored people, we made a 
declaration of the change in our idea of one another 
that brought it about. 

"We hold these truths," we said, <4 to be self-evident: 
that all men are created equal, that they are en- 
dowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; 
that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are 
instituted among men, deriving their just powers from 
the consent of the governed." 

Before we got this idea of one another, our idea was 
that we are unequal, and that governments are divinely 
appointed. 

Such was the chanre in our idea of one another that 

>_» 

brought about the change that took place in our Or- 
ganization of Government in 1776, by which we united 
everybody in it except the colored people. I am now 
to speak of the change in our idea of one another 
that brought about the change in our Organization 
of Government by which we united everybody in 
it including the colored people. 

Now when we got the idea that we are created equal, 
and that governments derive their just powers from the 
consent of the governed; it was not fully developed in 
our minds; and we did not see that it applied to every- 
body; and when we organized our government we in- 



8 



BRYAJX OB McKINLEY, WHICH? 



eluded the Organization of Slavery in it; an organiza- 
tion that was founded upon the idea that we are un- 
equal, and that government is divinely appointed. 

But the idea that we are created equal, and that gov- 
ernments derive their just powers from the consent of 
the governed, continued to develop; and finally we saw 
that the two organizations w T ere opposed to each other, 
and that one of them was directing our action one 
way, and one another, and it soon became a question 
of which would prevail. 

And thus was brought about the struggle between 
freedom and slavery. Between our Organization of 
Government founded upon the idea that we are created 
equal, and that governments derive their just powers 
from the consent of the governed, and the Organiza- 
tion of Slavery founded upon the idea that we are un- 
equal, and that government is divinely appointed. And 
in this struggle the Organization of Slavery at first had 
the advantage. 

For whoever controls the industry of the country will 
finally control the government of the country; and as 
the Organization of Slavery controlled the industry of 
the colored people, it finally got control of our Organ- 
ization of Government, and ran it in its own interest. 
And we had a government of the slave-holders, by the 
slave-holders, and for the slave-holders. They passed 
the fugitive slave law; and used the whole power of the 
government to establish slavery in the territories; and 
to acquire more territory to establish it in. 



WHAT THE STARS SAY. 



And as nothing so quickly destroys an organization 
as to administer it contrary to the idea of it, we became 
alarmed; and Lincoln said that the government could 
not exist halt slave and half free. That a house divid- 
ed against itself could not stand. And we began to 
study how to get out of our trouble. 

And we found that the Organization of Slavery got 
control of our Organization of Government by getting 
control of the Democratic party; and we concluded 
that the remedy was to defeat the Democratic party. 
Accordingly, there was a general exodus from the 
Democratic party, into the Republican party, and we 
elected Abraham Lincoln. 

And then the slave states said they would go out of 
the Union ;and they fired upon Fort Sumterjand we fired 
upon them; and shot slavery to death at Vicksburg, and 
Donaldson, at Pittsburg, and Chattanooga. And then 
we put a provision in the Constitution uniting all of us 
in our Organization of Government. 

Having thus spoken of the changes that have taken 
place in our Organization of Government, I am now to 
speak of the changes that have taken place in our Or- 
ganization of Industry. 

As I have said, the first step that we took in building 
our Organization of Industry was when we organized 
our Companies. 

Now our Companies were not organized upon any 
idea at all; for they were organized before we had any 
ideas, to amount to anything. They were organized 



10 



BRYAN OR McKINLEY, WHICH? 



upon our necessities, and to assist us in procuring food, 
clothes, and shelter. 

But not only were our Companies not organized upon 
ideas, but until recently they didn't absorb 'any; and 
the purpose of them remained the same as in the begin- 
ning, to assist us in procuring food, clothes and shelter. 

The next step that we took in building our Organiza- 
tion of Industry was when we organized our Combines. 
By the organization of our Combines we first introduc- 
ed ideas into our Organization of Industry. For our 
Combines are organized upon the conception that we 
can work to better advantage by co-operating with one 
another, than by competing with one another. 

But while the Combines are organized upon the con- 
ception that we can work to better advantage by co- 
operating with one another than by competing with 
one another, the conception upon which the} 7 are or- 
ganized is not fully developed; and while they co-oper- 
ate with one another they compete with everybody else, 
and thereby control the industry of the country; for 
they not only set the price that we pay them for what 
they have to sell, but that they pay us for what they 
have to buy, including our labor. 

And as whoever controls the industry of the country 
will finally control the government of the country, the 
Combines have got control of our Organization of Gov- 
ernment and are running it in their own interest, just 
as the Organization of Slavery got control of our Or- 



WHAT THE STARS SAY. 



11 



ganization of Government and ran it in its own interest. 

Under the pretense that it would debase the currency 
of the country, they have demonetized silver; and issue 
their promissory notes in the place of it; payable when 
they want to go out of business; and as they draw in- 
treston their notes, they are in no hurry about doing so. 

But they are not only using the power of the govern- 
ment to circulate their notes as money; but they are us- 
ing it to acquire more territory to do business in; just 
as the Organization of Slavery used the power of the 
goyernment to acquire more territory to clo business in. 

The president did not want to go to war in the 
Philippines. His idea was that the forceable annexa- 
tion of them would be criminal aggression. But they 
made him criminally aggress. He did not want to put 
a tariff on Porto Rico. He said it was our plain duty 
not to do so. But they made him see it differently. 

The president reminds me of a justice of the Peace 
in Tennessee, who lived right along the line between 
Tennessee and Mississippi. In fact his fence was on 
the line between the two states. And one day he and 
his son, and the hired man were working in the field 
close to this fence, and the son and the hired man got 
to fighting. And the Justice of the Peace, who was 
somewhat pompous sort of a man, jumped upon the fence 
and hollowed, "In the name of the state of Tennessee, 
I command the peace." 

And as he said this the fence broke down and he fell 
over into Mississippi. And then he said, "Billy, I've 



12 BRYAN OB McKINLEY, WHICH? 

lost my jurisdiction." And he stood by and saw his 
son give the hired man a threshing. 

And so with the president; he has issued his proclama- 
tions, but Combines having knocked the government 
out from under him, he has stood by and saw them 
give the people a threshing. 

Thus it happens that there has grown up within our 
Organization of Government, an organization similar 
to the Organization of Slavery, that has got possession 
of it, and is administering it upon an idea that is con- 
trary to it. 

For while the conception that we can work to better 
advantage by co-operating with one another than by 
competing with one another, is a conception of the idea 
that we are equal, it is an imperfect conception of it; 
and while the combines treat those that belong to them 
as equals, they treat those that do not belong to them 
as inferiors and administer the government in that way. 

And as nothing so quickly destroys an organization 
as to administer it upon an idea that is contrary to it, 
we are becoming alarmed. For we see that our house 
is again divided against itself; and that so divided it 
cannot stand. 

And we are beginning to study how to get out of our 
trouble. And we see that our Organization of Indus- 
try got control of our Organization of Government 
by getting control of the Republican party; just as the 
Organization of Slavery got control of our Organiza- 
tion of Government by getting control of the Democra- 



WHAT THE STABS SAY. 



13 



tic party. And we will conclude that the remedy is to 
defeat the Republican party. 

Accordingly there will be a general exodus from the 
Republican party into the Democratic party; and there- 
by our Organization of Government will be freed from 
our Organization of Industry. And then we will unite 
everybody in our Organization of Industry, just as we 
united everybody in our Organization of Government, 
and then the building of our institutions will be com- 
plete. 

This is the course, and the only course is for us to 
pursue; for it is the uniform course that we take in 
building our institutions. 

We did not destroy the British government in 1776. 
We adopted it, and modified, and extended it, so as 
to unite everybody in it, except the colored people. 

And we pursued the same course in 1861. We did 
not destroy our government. We adopted it, and mod- 
ified, and extended it, so as to unite everybody in it in- 
cluding the colored people. 

And it was the same way with the Combines. They 
did not destroy the Companies. They adopted them, 
and modified, and extended them, so as to unite every- 
body that belonged to the Companies in them. 

And it will be the same way with the next step that 
we are to take. We will not destroy the Combines. 
We will adopt them, and modify, and extend them so 
as to unite everybody in them. 

For, as I have said, in building our institutions we are 



14 



BRYAN OB MeKINLEY, WHICH? 



controled by an unvarying law. We first unite a lew of 
us in them, then we unite more of us in them, and final- 
ly we unite all of us in them. 

Such being - the next step that we are to take build- 
ing our institutions, the question is, How are we to it? 
And while this question connot be answered definitely, 
until we develop the idea that we can work to better 
advantage by co-operating with one another, than by 
competing with one another, and see that it applies so 
everybody; this much may by said: that it will be taken 
by uniting everybody in our Companies and federating 
our Compaies; just as the Combines were organized by 
federating our Companies, our government by federat- 
ing our states, and our states by federating our counties. 

Some one will say, destroy the combines; and go back 
to individual effort. But the invention of machinery 
has made this forever impossible for us. For while 
one may may run a wagon, or a blacksmith's shop, it 
requires a combination of us to run a railroad, or a fac- 
tory. 

Again, some of you will say, neither destroy the com- 
bines, nor unite everybody in them, but control them. 
But the only way that we can control anything that we 
don't belong to, is through our Organization of Govern- 
ment; and as the Combines control that, the only way 
we can control the Combines is to get into them and 
help run them. 

For we have either got to get into the combines, and 
get the benefit of t-hsm, or stay out of them, and let 



WHAT THE STARS SAY. 



15 



them get the benefit of us. And that is not to be 
thought of. For their method is to run up the stars 
and stripes, and make us stand and deliver. For in- 
stead of administering justice with mercy, they admin- 
stripes with scorn, And when we complain of their 
cruelty they call us anarchists, and say we want to 
break down the law. 

But some one will ask if the Democratic party is 
pledged to unite all of us in the Organization of Indus- 
try. No; nor was the Republican party pledged to 
unite all of us in our Organization of Goverment when 
we put it in power. But the people were pledged to it, 
for they had to do it to build our institutions, and 
the Republican party carried it out. 

And so the Democratic party is not pledged to unite 
all of us in our Organization of Industry, but the peo- 
ple are pledged to it; for they have to do it to build our 
institutions; and the Democratic party will carry it 
out. For in using our parties in building our institu- 
tions, as in taking the steps by which we build them, 
we pursue a uniform course. We first use one party in 
building them, and then the other. 

We took our first step in building our institutions 
through the Democratic party;' for through the Demo- 
cratic party we organized our government. And then 
the Democratic party became the hind leg; and while it 
was standing still, admiring its proportions, the Organ- 
ization of Slavery got hold of it, and pulled it; and not 



16 



BRYAN OB McKINLEY, WHICH? 



only pulled it, but held on to it; and we had to defeat 
the Democratic party to make it let go. 

We took the next step in building our institutions 
through the Republican party, for it was through the 
Republican party that we organized our government 
so as to unite everybody in it. And then the Republi- 
can party became the hind leg; and while it was stand- 
ing still admiring, its proportions, the Combines got 
hold of it, and are pulling it; and not only pulling it, 
but holding on to it; and we will have to defeat the Re- 
publican party to make them let go. 

So you see that our parties are the feet of the nation 
by which it moves along. And whenever you hear a 
man exalting his party above every thing else, you 
may know that he has mistaken the pedal extremities 
of our institutions for the people whose will they obey. 
He is a man that votes for the feet of the nation, and 
not about how it ought to go. 

And yet there is a great deal of party pride in the 
country; and there are people that have been voting 
for the feet of the nation ever since the Rebellion. 
And no wonder our Organization of Government has 
fallen into the hands of the Combines. While we have 
been looking at our feet, they have been putting their 
hands in our pockets. And until we get rid of the idea 
that our feet are the principal part of our organization 
they will continue to do so. 

But some of you will say that while you believe that 
the Republican party ought to be put out of con- 



WHAT THE STARS SAY. 



17 



trol of the government, you don't believe the Demo- 
cratic party ought to be put into control of it. That 
when it had control of the government under Buchanan 
it made a mess of it. 

But you must bear in mind that it wasn't the Demo- 
cratic party that made the mess of it; it was the organ- 
ization of Slavery that had control of the Democratic 
party; just as it isn't the Republican party that is mak- 
ing the mess of it now, but our Organization of Indus- 
try that has control of the Republican party. 

But you will say that the Democratic party had con- 
trol of the government since the abolition of slavery; 
and that it made a mess of it then. But you will re- 
member that at that time the Combines had hardly de- 
cided which party to light on, and that the Democratic 
party was badly fly-blown; as the Republican party at 
the same time was. 

And besides the Democratic party had Cleveland; 
and he was like McKinley, a man of destiny; and when 
a president gets an idea of that kind in his head, 
he is sure to get the people into trouble; for whenever 
anything comes up he thinks that it is his destiny to 
take hold of it. 

This is what kept Cleveland vetoing pension bills, 
and neglecting the weightier matters of the law. 
And this is what makes McKinley buy up islands 
without inquiring who they belong to, or what 
they are ornamented with; and makes him the wet- 
nurse of poligamy, and slavery, and things of that kind. 



18 



BRYAN OR McKINLE Y, WHICH? 



But since the disappearance of Cleveland, the Demo- 
cratic party has had a new birth; for it has gone to read- 
the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution 
of the United States; and that will regenerate anyparty, 
no matter how fly-blown it is. Of course it wouldn't 
save a party that the flies have completely taken pos- 
session of; for you couldn't get a party like that to read 
the right kind of documents; and they couldn't expect 
to be resurected. 

But after all we cannot choose the party that we will 
use in the next step that we will take in building our 
institutions; for we cannot use the party that we took 
the last step with, any more than we can use the foot 
that we took the last step with in walking; and if we go 
at all, we have got to use the Democratic party, 
and we may as well make up our minds to it. 

So you see that knowing how to vote is a very simple 
matter. All we have got to do is to ascertain what 
party we took the last step with, and what is eating on 
it, and vote for the other one. For it will never do to 
vote for a party at one time because we voted for it at 
another. 

For to say nothing about the danger that there 
is of our voting for our hind foot, as soon as a 
party has taken a step forward, it unconsciously feels 
that it cannot take the next one, and in order to keep 
up an interest in itself it goes to beating drums, and 
even getting on horseback, and if we vote for it we will 
vote for mere noise. 



WHAT THE STARS SAY. 



19 



So, as I have said, the only way to vote is to ascer- 
tain what party we took the last step with, and what is eat- 
ing on it, and vote for the other one. For when a party 
has taken a step forward, and feels that it can't take 
take the next one, it will resort to all kinds of means to 
attract attention. 

Among other things, if the times are good, it will 
claim that it furnished them; although a party of that 
kind never furnishes anything, it is the organization 
that has control of it that furnishes it for them. 

We all know who furnished the good times that we 
have now, for the combines told us that if we would 
elect McKinley they would do the rest. And they have 
kept their word; but they have seen to it that they got 
a large per cent of it themselves; for while they have 
increased the price of what we have to sell about twen- 
ty per cent; they have increased the price of what we 
haye to buy about forty. 

And in order to do so they got us into a war that we 
will have to pay for. For after all the increased price 
of what we have to sell is for the most part owing to 
the demand that there is for it to supply our soldiers. 

What the Combines have done, is to put the boys up 
to be shot at; in order to fulfil their promise to give us 
good times, of which they get forty per cent and we 
twenty; so that we may give them control of the govern- 
ment again; and at the same time get more territory to 
do business in. 



20 



BRYAN OR McKINLEY, WHICH? 



And that we might not care so much about the 
shooting, they have called home the volunteers, 
and substituted the regulars in the place of them, so 
that we wouldn't know who it was that was shot. And 
now the report comes in, not that an Iowa soldier was 
shot, but a member of the 24th or 34th United States 
Infantry, and no one knows who he is, except his moth- 
er. 

I some times think we oughtn't to have any soldiers 
except the volunteers, for the states look after them; 
but the poor regular no one cares for. And yet they 
are somebody's sons. 

But even admitting that our parties furnish the times, 
it would never do to vote for the party that is furnishing 
the times that we have now; for while we are rapidly 
producing wealth the people are not getting it. 

In 1890, 20 per cent of the wealth of the country was 
owned by three hundredths of one per cent of the fam- 
ilies of it. And 91 per cent of the families only owned 20 
per cent of the wealth. And finally 4047 of the families 
owned seven-tenths as much as the remaining 12,000,- 
000 families. And it is worse now than it was then. 
And it is getting worse every day. And if it keeps on 
our house will be down upon our heads. 

For our government will have failed of the purpose 
for which it was organized; to so direct our action 
as not to injure one another, and it will go to pieces. 
We will first have an oligarchy, then anarchy and dis- 



WHAT THE S TARS SAY. 



21 



pair, And we will be calling upon the rocks and the 
mountains to fall upon us. 

And the only way to prevent this is to complete our 
institutions; to unite all of us in our industry as we have 
united all of us in our government, and thereby estab- 
li i\\ the reign of justice in the place of the reign of greed. 
The reign of righteousness in the place of the reign of 
mammon. 

Make man the standard of value instead of the gold 
dollar. Make humanity the rallying cry of the Repub- 
lic instead of bonds and mortgages. Take the Repub- 
lic out of the kitchen, and put it up stairs. Put the old 
idea behind the flag, and make it the symbol of pro- 
gression through peace, and not of retrogression 
through war. 

Having thus spoken of the difficulty that we are in, 
and the way out of it, I am now to speak more particu- 
larly of the relation of our parties to it. 

Now, as 1 have shown, in building our institutions, so 
far as we have proceeded with them, we have built 
them upon the idea that we are equal, and it is easy to 
see that if we are to complete them, we have got to 
complete them upon the same idea. 

At least we cannot complete them upon the opposite 
idea; upon the idea that we are unequal, for if we are 
to proceed upon that idea, we have got to tear them 
down and commence new. 

And this is the program of the Combines, for while 



22 



BRYAN OR McKINLEY, WHICH? 



they are organized upon the idea that we are equal, 
they are organized upon an imperfect conception of it; 
upon the conception, that we are equal, but that we are 
not all equal; that those that belong to the Combines 
are superior to those that do not belong to them. And 
their program is to change ojr Organization of Govern- 
ment to correspond with this idea. 

And as the Combines have control of the government, 
it amounts to making those that have control of the 
government superior to those that do not have control 
of it. In other words, it amounts to making the govern- 
ment superior to the people, just as it was before we 
made the change in it, in 1776. Only the Combines 
propose that they shall control the government instead 
of a king. That we shall have an oligarchy, and an 
oligarchy of wealth at that. The worst form of gov- 
ernment imaginable. 

It is worse than an oligarchy of slavery; for the slave- 
holders see that their people get plenty to eat, take 
care of them when they are sick, and bury them when 
they die. But an oligarchy of wealth simply pays us 
what it wants to for what we do for it, and shuts the 
door in our faces. 

Now some one will ask how I know this is the pro- 
gram of the Combines. I know it because I under- 
stand the law that governs our actions. 

As I have said, our action towards one another is 
governed by oar idea of one another; and as the idea 

Left 



WHAT THE STARS SAY, 



upon which the Combines are organized is that those 
that belong to them are superior to those that do not 
belong to them, they have got to act towards those 
that do not belong to them in that way; and in order to 
carry out their action they have got to change the form 
of our government. From this course there is no es- 
cape for them except to get rid of the idea that is con- 
trolling them. 

Now I do not say that the people that belong to the 
Combines figure it out that they are superior to those 
that do not belong to them. What I say is that they 
are organized upon the idea that they are superior to 
those that do not belong to them. That their very or- 
ganization makes them superior to those that do 
not belong to them. And it is by this superiority that 
they have got control of the the government. 

But there is one thing that the Combines ought to 
remember: that in destroying our Organization of Gov- 
ernment, they are destroying the idea upon which they 
are organized. For they are organized upon the idea 
that we are equal — that is part of us -and when they 
destroy our government, they destroy the idea that any 
of us are equal, and it wont be long until they go to 
pieces themselves. And having worked the de- 
struction of themselves, they have worked the de- 
struction of civilization. And it makes one sick to 
think of the condition that humanity will present. 

For if the institutions that we have built upon this 
continent, upon the idea that we are equal, are destroy- 



24 



BEY AN OR McKINLEY, WHICH? 



ed, the light of life will go out. For after all, it is not 
our flag that is greatest, but our institutions that are 
behind our flag. Not our institutions behind our flag, 
but the idea of ourselves that is behind our institutions. 

For not only have we built our institutions upon the 
idea that we are equal, but we have built our character 
upon it. We have built our idea of right and wrong 
upon it. And accursed will be the hand that takes it 
from us. 

Such being the program of the Combines, it is the 
program of the Republican party; for as I have said, 
the Combines have got control of the Republican party, 
and are using it as they want to. 

So that the issues in the campaign this fall are not 
merely political, but moral. The question involved is 
not alone whether we shall lose our institutions, but 
whether we shall lose our character. Whether from a 
people that arecontrollei by the exception of right, we 
shall become a people that are controlled by the con- 
ception of might. Whether in the future the questions 
that come before us are to be settled in the court of 
conscience, or in the field of war. Whether the power 
of the people is to be physical or moral. Whether we 
are to degenerate from high minded citizens, into 
swaggering bullies. And from swaggering bullies into 
anarchy and despair. 

Now I do not say that the Republican party is con- 
scious of the way it is being used. For there are plenty 
of patriotic men in the Republican party, thank God; 



WHAT THE STARS SAY. 



25 



and these men are to be the very salt of the earth, for 
as soon as they see how they are being used, they will 
swarm out of the Republican party like bees out of a 
hive. For after all it is not the Democratic party 
that is to save the nation; it is the people through 
the Democratic party. A party cannot save anything, 
it can only take the step that the people want it to. 

Nor is the Republican party to be greatly blamed for 
being controlled by the Combines. For as the Organ- 
ization of slavery that controlled only the industry of 
the colored people, controlled the administration of 
Buchanan, it was to be expected that our Organization 
of Industry that controls the industry of all the people 
would control any administration it would elect. 

And our Organization of Industry elected President 
McKinley. You all remember how the different 
branches of it threatened those that were working for 
them, that if Bryan was elected they would shut down, 
and that if McKinly was elected they would open up. 

And they elected McKinley; and they opened up the 
factories, and closed down the government, and we quit 
reading the Declaration of Independence, and rubbed 
out the golden rule. Whatsoever you would that oth- 
ers would do unto you, do you even so unto them. And 
established in the place of it: Whensoever you can do 
others, do you even so unto them. 

But to say nothing of the Combines having elected 
the present administration, they have thrown a spell 
over it, and got it to believe that it is divinely directed; 



26 



BEY AN OE McKINLE Y, WHICH? 



and when a party gets an idea of that kind it is no more 
responsible for what it does than an individual that is 
laboring under the same delusion. 

For such a delusion has a homicidal tendency. Peo- 
ple that have it usually want to kill somebody. And if 
they have it bad, they want to kill lots of people, for 
they go to dreaming of empire; and forget the law. 
Forget the Constitution. Forget the difference be- 
tween right and wrong; and go to killing and robbing, 
and think they are doing God's service. 

But while the Republican party believes it is divinely 
directed, I assure it, that it is mistaken. For while the 
hand that it has hold of is the hand of Esau, the voice 
that it is listening to is the voice of Jacob, and it is the 
Combines that are leading it instead of the Creator. 

There is one thing that the Trusts may as well 
make up their minds to, that in whatever disguise they 
come we are not going to take them for the Deity. 
And especially when they come in a disguise we so re- 
cently tore from the face of slavery. You will remem- 
ber that a few years ago that was masquerading around 
as a divine thing. 

But one thing leads to another; and if the Combines 
could get the people to believe that the Republi- 
can party is divinely directed, they would soon be 
claiming that it is infallibly directed, and that we have 
no right to criticise it; and then we would be in a 
pretty fix. 

Of course the only thing that we could do would be 



WHAT THE STARS SAY. 



21 



to send for the pope; for if we are to be governed in 
that way we would want to be governed by some one 
that has had some experience in it, and not by a person 
that has spent his life tinkering with the tariff. 

But while the Republican party is not really respon- 
sible for what it does, we don't want to be governed by 
that kind of folk. And especially as it shows no lucid 
intervals. For the President says it isn't going to scut- 
tle any. What ought to be done with it I think is to 
confine it — at home. I wouldn't send it off. It will get 
over it after awhile, and make a very good hind foot — 
if we can get the flies off of it. And it may after awhile 
become the front one. But not this year. 

For the truth is, that the Republican party having 
lost sight of the idea that we are equal, has despaired 
of the Republic, and gone back to the idea of King 
George. Thus the Republican party and the Demo- 
cratic party are arrayed against each other over the 
idea upon which we are building our institutions, and 
unless the lamp of liberty is to go out, the Democratic 
party will prevail. For the Republican party has 
raised the sword of Attilla across the path of progress 

But while the Republican party has despaired of the 
Republic the people have not despaired of it. And we 
never will. For we love our Organization of Govern- 
ment. For we are bound to it by the cords of memory 
that lead to the graves of our heroic dead. It has the 
sanction of Washington, and is sealed with the blood of 
martyred Lincoln. And there is not a man among us 



28 



BRYAN OB McKIXLEY, WHICH? 



that is worthy of the name of an American citizen that 
would not give his life to preserve it. 

Now it will be seen from what has been said, that in 
the next step that we are to take in building our insti- 
tutions we will have to depend upon the Democratic 
party. And the Democratic party is being especially 
prepared for it; for it has gone to reading the docu- 
ments in which the idea that we are equal is most 
fully expressed And when the idea upon which we 
are proceeding is developed in the minds of the people, 
it will be ready to move us forward. For a party can- 
not move until the people move. 

And the people will be moved as they have never 
been moved before. For not only has the Democratic 
party gone to reading the documents in which the idea 
that we are equal is most full) 7 expressed, but the peo- 
ple will go to reading them too. We will read the 
Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of 
the United States. We will get down our old school 
books, and read the speeches of Otis and Henry; and 
having warmed our hearts at our old altars of liberty, 
.we will turn with devotion to those that were erected at 
later times. 

We will read the amendments that we have made to 
the Constitution, and Lincoln's speech at Gettysburg; 
and with the fires of liberty burning in our hearts, we 
will highly resolve with him, that government of the 
. people, by the people, and for the people, shall not 
perish from the earth. That under God this nation 
shall have a new birth of freedom. 



WHAT THE STARS SAY. 



2<) 



For we are now to erect a new temple of liberty in 
which none can be hungry and receive not meat, none 
thirsty and receive not drink. For it will be dedicated 
to human need. And it will have the power of all the 
genius that has lived and wrought since the morning 
stars sang together. 

For under its control will be the whir of all spindles, 
and the beating of all looms. And the machinery that 
now lifts the burden off of some of our backs, will then 
lift the burden off of all of our backs. For it will be 
under the control of the great heart of humanity that 
can hear the wail of sorrow and of hunger. 

For while the idea that we are equal is guiding us in 
building our institutions, the idea that we are one, 
is the idea from which they spring, and when the build- 
ing of them is complete, we will not only be united in 
our government and in our industry, but united in our 
minds, and we will be members one of another. 

Against this great time, that by lifting the veil of the 
future, I plainly see, how poor and worthless our strifes 
appear. How as nothing the bickerings of the market 
and the greed of trade. For in the new time it will 
not be me and mine, but us and ours, 

F*or we are now to go forward to the consummation 
of civilization, or backward to the destruction of it. 
Before us lie the green pastures, and still waters of 
plenty and peace. Behind us the desert and the 
mountains, over which we have walked with parched 
lips, and bleeding feet. 



30 



BEY AN OB McKINLEY, WHICH? 



With one more effort we may enter the land that our 
aspirations, and our hopes have promised us ever since 
the sublime idea of our equality arose in our conscious- 
ness to guide us on our way. And that until now we 
have never doubted or hesitated to follow, although 
our fidelity to it has been tested at every step of our 
progress. 

It was fidelity to this idea, the following it, and trust- 
ing it, that brought us in triumph through the Revolu- 
tionary war. It was fidelity to this idea, the following 
it and trusting it, that brought us in triumph through 
the war of the Rebellion. It was fidelity to this idea, 
the following it and trusting it, that brought us in tri- 
umph through our war with Spain. And it was only 
after that war was over, only after the last gun had 
been fired in the cause of the liberty of Cuba, that we 
turned our faces from the light. 

But it will only be for a moment; for before long the 
fires of patriotism will be burning in all hearts; and we 
will again turn our faces to the star that Washington 
set in the skies, and that Lincoln never lost sight of, 
And following this, we will go forward to our sublime 
destiny; not that of conquering the islands of the seas, 
but of establishing upon this continent a government 
of the people, by the people, and for the people, that 
cannot perish from the earth. For when we are unit- 
ed in our industry as we are in our government, we can 
defy all foes. 

And while the change from the old form of our in- 



WHAT TEE STABS SAY. 



lit 



dustry to the new cannot be made without difficulty, it 
will be no such difficulty as we have heretofore met 
with. For since we left the birthplace of the race in 
our attempt to realize a right condition of society, our 
course has been marked with the graves of nations. 
But our nation will not die. Our difficulty will be that 
of birth; and we will be sustained in it by the con- 
sciousness that, when it is over, we will have realized 
the hopes and the aspirations of all of the ages. 

To vote for Bryan is to vote zvith the courses of the 
stars. 



SEP 15 1900 



